BOX OFFICE: BLACK PANTHER Exceeds Expectations And Tops CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR In Thursday Previews
As expected, Black Panther exceeded expectations at the North American box office last night and all of Deadpool's February records are being shattered! Hit the jump for details on that and more...
Black Panther is making history at the box office as Marvel's latest movie scored a whopping $25.2 million during last night's preview showings. That puts it ahead of Captain America: Civil War and the only superhero movies which have opened bigger than this are The Dark Knight Rises ($30.6 million), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($27.7 million), and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($27.6 million).
Now, the Ryan Coogler helmed release has scored the best preview number for February ever, effortlessly topping Deadpool's $12.7 million from 2016. Tracking currently suggests that Black Panther will earn around $165 million over the four-day weekend but those are relatively conservative estimates and it's entirely possible that it will earn quite a bit more with positive word of mouth.
Black Panther is also doing well overseas where it's opened in a number of markets to so far score $47 million. It doesn't reach Russia until February 22nd and Japan follows on March 1st with China not too far behind on the 9th. As Marvel's best-reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes, you have to believe that Kevin Feige won't hesitate to get work on a sequel moving soon. Have you seen Black Panther?
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A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.
While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for CBM and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).
Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.